BusdriverRoadkill OvercoatAnti-RecordsFour-and-a-half out of five stars
It’s hard for my father to appreciate rap music. He thinks it’s just a deep bass thump and some guy talking in an unmelodic way about unintelligible or unintelligent things. I don’t know that he’d like Busdriver any more than he’d like any other hip-hop artist, but his theories are shattered by this album.
In Busdriver’s recent release, Roadkill Overcoat, he mixes rap with spacey electronic keyboards, rock music and techno. This is not your average ghetto rap. The lyrics are smart and witty-if somewhat disjointed and abstract-and the general atmosphere is dark, not like a septic alleyway, but like the brain of a schizophrenic New York cabbie. It only makes sense that this album is on the Epitaph subsidiary Anti-Records.
Despite the fact that we’re only one month into the year, we can confidently say that the song “Casting Agents and Cowgirls” will be one of our favorite songs of 2007. It is melodic and hooky while still being unpredictable and amusingly odd.
Other noteworthy tracks include the dizzying and hilarious lyrics of “Pompous Posies! Your Party’s No Fun,” “(Bloody Paw on the) Kill Floor” and “Go Slow,” with its moody synths and monk-like drone. It also features Bianca Casady from the amazing and achingly beautiful electronic-folk duo CocoRosie, which is an uncommon but very interesting and refreshing choice for a hip-hop guest appearance.
This album is more like Beck than Gorillaz. More like cLOUDDEAD than Linkin Park. And for those of you who need a more “hip” recommendation, MySpace recently featured Busdriver on its homepage.
But don’t let other MySpacers claim they found Busdriver first?you’ll just be embarrassed, and you may lose some of your virtual friends.
You can hear this and other experimental rock and rap music by tuning into KUTE Radio at www.kute.org.